Google has recently released information on how it handles font replacement in websites. Google recommends @font-face or Google WebFonts. Google down ranks web pages if the font replacement generates different letters. Google also down-ranks websites with slow loading times and older methods of font replacement can increase load time.
What is Website Font Replacement?
Web designers often get sick of the same-old fonts, so they use font replacement to add a prettier font to their website.
What are the popular website font replacement methods used.
sIFR
sIFR is as older, but still popular font replacement method. sIFR relies on Flash files. sIFR is more complicated then the other, newer methods of font replacement. sIFR ignores web page stylesheets and requires knowledge of sIFR's unique styling code to use.
Cufón
Cufón is another popular newer font replacement method then sIFR. Cufón allows you to generate a JavaScript code snippet you place in the head of your web page. Cufón also generates a stand-alone javaScript file you can download to your website hosting.
@font-face
@font-face is another method of font replacement. Unlike sIFR you don't need to learn a unique code to style your fonts. The fonts are affected by your stylsheets. @font-face only uses CSS and the actual font file to accomplish font replacement, so it significantly decreases the burden on web page's load time compared to sIFR and Cufón.
Google WebFonts
Google WebFonts http://www.google.com/webfonts is the newest and probably the best method of font replacement for your website. Google has stored a large database of web fonts on their server. Webfonts allows you to reference a stored font using a very small code snippet you embed into your website. Unlike sIFR, Cufón and @font-face you don't have to worry about font copyright issues. All Google's webfonts fonts are free to use.